New foreclosure filings dropped by 18.5 percent in Tampa Bay from January to June compared to the same time last year.

Florida was still the top state for foreclosures in the nation, but the new statistics are heartening, say observers. The data released Wednesday by the real estate data service RealtyTrac showed new foreclosure filings dipped by 22 percent in the first half of the year, according to the Tampa Tribune.

Across the state about 1 in every 74 houses is in a stage of foreclosure, the Tribune said. In Tampa Bay that rate is 1 in 71.

Nationwide, foreclosures dropped to their lowest levels since before the recession, Bloomberg News said. “We’ve seen light at the end of the tunnel and foreclosures are more like a troublesome gnat than a mortal threat to the housing market,” RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist told Bloomberg.